So…How Did I Meet Your Mother?

After nine long years of wondering how Ted really met his wife and mother of his children, the question was finally answered on Monday’s season finale. So, how did he meet your mother? At a rainy train station after the woman he chased for nine seasons married his best friend. Oh, and your mother’s name is Tracey.

TWIST

That’s right, folks. We just got M. Night Shyamalan-ed.

For nine long years, the American public has been lead to believe that Robin was the children’s mother, the one that inspired Ted to narrate the entire series. While some long-time fans were rooting for Robin the whole time, the series’ writers could not have told the romance of Ted and Robin in a more fitting way.

Here’s why.

For starters, the entire story told to Ted’s children encourages the love between Ted and Robin. In the end, it is the children that seal the two lovebirds’ fate. If it weren’t for Ted’s children, he would never have reconnected with his former flame. Interesting that the true audience of How I Met Your Mother (Ted’s Children) actually chose the ending.

Another reason why this finale redeemed three previous seasons of mediocrity is its unabashed and raw look at love. It isn’t always the linear meet-date-fall in love-marriage-happily ever after we all dream of. In fact, love is never that way. Ever. It finds you when you least expect it, like at a train station in the rain. It takes time–seven years for Ted and Tracey–before marriage is right. And then, like the cruel mistress she is, life gets in the way. And by life, I mean death. Tracey passed away six years prior to the beginning of the How I Met Your Mother saga.

Finally, the story arc of Ted’s heart puts to the test his theory of having one true love. While some hold true to the idea of soul mates, the fact is that true love is about friendship and commitment, not being two pieces of the same whole. The only time in the history of mankind that humans have been made for each other is in the instance of NSYNC, in which five beautiful young men melded into a harmonious majesty of musical splendor. Some critics are disappointed that there wasn’t “one true love,” and even more disappointed that said one true love may not have been the Mother.

Didn’t you see this coming?

These same critics are outraged that the writers killed the mother, but you honestly should have known this all along. Why else would Ted be telling the story of how he met her? If she were alive, wouldn’t the Mother be telling the story with Ted? Narrating together their illustrious love affair, ups and downs, journey on that roller coaster of heart ache, heart break, and true love? The very fact that Ted felt compelled to tell his children the story of how he met their mother signifies that she has been lost–he is remembering her, telling the story in her honor.

So, while I hated the laugh track and “live studio audience” feel of How I Met Your Mother, I must applaud the writers on straying from the overdone, worn out, one true love denouement we find in so many sitcom finales.

Watch parts one and two of the How I Met Your Mother series finale, Last Forever.